Daler Mehndi committed a crime, why should I apologise?: Minister refutes Mika Singh’s claim

A day after Mika Singh’s team claimed that Uttarakhand minister Subodh Uniyal apologized to his elder brother and fellow singer Daler Mehdni for ridiculing him on the stage at a recent event, the BJP minister has dismissed such claims. Doubling down on his stand that there’s no question of apologising, he indicated that it’s the veteran singer who should be apologising to his audience instead.

“There is no question of me apologising,” said Uniyal, when asked whether he actually called up Daler to apologize to him personally, like Mika claimed on Monday. “Tell me, have I committed any crime that I should apologise for?,” added the minister. After repeating Daler’s lapse in communication, he posed the question, “I ask, who’s the criminal now?”

Uniyal argued again that if Daler was unwell, he should have never accepted the offer — and the fees of Rs 26 lakh — for performing at the event. “If he was unwell, he should’ve never made it to the event. And even if he did, he should’ve told the audience that he’s unwell. He’s committed a crime by accepting the payment of Rs 26 lakh and then disappointing the audience,” Uniyal told Satya Vani.

After extending his support to Daler for the entire week since the incident happened, Mika on Monday issued a statement on behalf of his team, claiming that Uniyal had apologized to his elder brother over the phone. “We appreciate that Subodh Uniyal ji has apologised to Daler Mehndi paaji over a telephonic conversation regarding the unfortunate incident,” his team told NDTV.

What happened at the event?

Earlier this month, Uniyal got onto the stage and expressed displeasure when Daler was performing during Siddhpeeth Maa Kunjapuri Tourism and Development Fair, a cultural event organised by the Uttarakhand Government at Narendra Nagar in New Tehri area. In a video of the incident that went viral on social media, Uniyal is heard asking Mehndi if he was drunk as he was not able to speak properly.

However, the next day, Mika jumped in Daler’s defense, claiming that the latter never drinks. “If you find Daler Mehndi drunk, I’ll quit singing,” he said. Later, in another video he shared on his Instagram handle, he demanded an apology from Uniyal for disrespecting a senior artist despite the latter accepting the offer to fill in for another singer at the last minute even though he was unwell and had undergone a surgery recently.

Several Bollywood celebrities also issued statements in support of Daler, including actors Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav, and Vir Das among others. However, singer Sona Mohapatra questioned that the audience also deserve some accountability from the artists performing in front of them, for which they’ve paid a good amount of money.

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The matter even got escalated to Uttarakhand Chief Minister  Pushkar Singh Dhami, who said the state respects all artistes, and he’d speak to both Daler and Mika, whom he described as his “good friends”. “I believe the minister must have been under pressure from the public at that time. The minister himself has stated that he was unaware that Daler Mehndi was unwell,” he said at a press conference.